THE ROYAL WALNUT 75 



THE STRANGE TRAITS or HYBRIDS 



The tendency to surpass their parents in size 

 is a characteristic that is very commonly mani- 

 fested when plants of different species are 

 hybridized. It is a familiar and now well-recog- 

 nized fact that the crossing of diverse strains of 

 living creatures, plant or animal, tends to result 

 in what for lack of a better term is usually 

 described as increased vitality. 



It would appear as if the conflict of new 

 tendencies so stimulates the cellular activities 

 as to give them an unwonted capacity for. 

 reproduction. 



In this case we are not concerned, as we were 

 in some of the other hybridizing experiments 

 already examined, with the prepotency or domi- 

 nance of the qualities of one parent. Instead of 

 this there is a distinct blending of characteristics 

 so that the new product is in many respects inter- 

 mediate between its parents in matters of foliage 

 and fruit. But in growing capacity it far sur- 

 passes them both. 



Thus we have produced, as the offspring of 

 the slow-growing English walnut and the not 

 very rapidly growing California species, a tree 

 that grows so rapidly as presently to tower far 

 above either of its parents. 



